


Playing Dirty

by blueswan



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:02:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1207030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueswan/pseuds/blueswan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally posted Jan 2006.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Dirty

Cautiously Wes pushed the door further open, letting gravity pull it the rest of the way. He stood back and waited for the demon to erupt from the room. When nothing happened he straightened his shoulders and pointed the flashlight into the room. He flicked a look across the open doorway to Gunn, and stepped inside.

Gunn shuffled his feet and felt his hand twitching on his axe, head tilted, eyes wide as he tried to see into the dark room beyond - through - Wes. Stood there waiting for Wes, and took a cautious - he'd learned long ago not to be breathing too deeply around suspected demon lairs - sniff of the stale air. Seemed all right, maybe a bit musty and too dusty, he thought as he stifled a sneeze.

He was through the doorway and at Wes' side before Gunn realized he was moving. He reached down and pulled Wes to his feet. "What is it? Where'd it go?"

"It's fine, Gunn. I merely tripped over something on the floor." Wes dragged his finger over the toggle on the flashlight repeatedly. "The batteries appear to have gone, or I damaged the bulb when I fell."

Gunn faded back to the wall and felt along by the door, his fingers found a light-switch and he flipped it up. A single dusty bulb hanging loosely from a fixture in the middle of the room lighted the darkness. A shadow where there should be none caught his eye, and Gunn hurled his axe through the air.

A meaty thud, a wet moan, and Wes cursing followed in rapid-fire sequence. Once again, Gunn was at his side, turning Wes toward him so he could check him over. Wes had his eyes squeezed shut, his face covered in orange - blood? -, and bits of purple something - brain matter? - sliding down his cheek.

Gunn slid his fingers into Wes' pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He curled an arm around Wes' shoulders and carefully wiped the gore away from his eyes. A flick of the cloth, and Gunn folded it over and continued to wipe the filth away. Wes tolerated this for several minutes and then shoved Gunn's hand away.

"I've never seen that species before. I'd like to get a closer look, Gunn." Wes was pulling a notebook out of his pocket and uncapping a pen before Gunn could haul him out of the room and away from the demon.

"Wes, we don't even know if it's dead. Let me just chop off its head and you can study to your heart's content." Gunn's axe was in the air before he realized Wes wasn't listening. Instead he was down on one knee, scribbling furiously into his notepad. Gunn twisted sideways, and the axe head bit deeply into the floorboards.

"It'll take me hours to get a decent edge back on my axe. Why couldn't you wait a minute?" he complained.

Wes measured and drew and made notation after notation until even Gunn conceded the thing must be dead. He moved back and leaned against the wall. The switch was just inside his peripheral vision and it was tempting to flick it off and on and see if the thing on the floor would look like it was moving. That'd sure freak old Wes out. But he didn't do it, he resisted temptation, and that should rack him up bonus points with Wes when he mentioned it tonight. At least, it had better.

Finally, Wes sighed and rose to his feet. "I can't do much more without some equipment."

"Hey, you know maybe we could carry autopsy equipment. You'd probably find it handy next time we bag some evil thing you haven't seen before."

"Sarcasm is not necessary, Gunn."

"Well, you'd know."

They were both locked in place, staring at each other, until Wes lowered his eyes and sighed again. "I should have let you check the room first. I should have let you ensure the creature was dead. I'm sorry, Charles."

"Yeah, you shoulda." Long pause, while Gunn breathed, and tried to think of something more to get his point across, something that wouldn't leave Wes with a furrow between his eyes. Finally, he shrugged away from the wall. "Come on, let's go tell Cordy we killed the thing so she can get her invoice in the mail."

No way it was on purpose that Gunn hip-checked Wes into the door-frame on the way out of the room. That'd be playing dirty.


End file.
